A judge has put a spoke in Lindow's chief Michael Robertson's attempts to help consumers claim their share of the $1.1 billion class action settlement against Microsoft in California.

"Lindows.com Inc.'s site, MSfreePC.com, promised to simplify the
process and provide instant gratification. Users, after answering a few
questions, were given Lindows' Linux operating system or other
open-source software instantly rather than having to wait six months
for paper claims to be processed.

Microsoft said MSfreePC violated the integrity of the claims process.
Lindows countered that Microsoft did not want to simplify the process
so that it could collect a bigger portion of any unclaimed money."

The judge sided with Microsoft.

Off the back of the IBM and Intel initiative I mentioned yesterday, it seems that Novell are to follow suit and offer legal protection (against SCO) to their linux customers.